Something i've noticed recently, perhaps other places in the UK have it, but the weather has been a bit odd round these parts recently, and there is the biggest amount of greenfly and some really odd light coloured spiders with tiny bodies and comedy spindly legs...
Perhaps it's the amount of time this flat was vacant before i moved in, or just something i noticed...
More interesting topics next time! :-)
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Don't Panic! we know what exactly is going on...
A wise old former soldier i once worked with once told me that "back in the day" when he was in the Army, you never volunteered for anything, ever, unless you were completely kamikaze.
I sometimes wonder if "Civvy Street" life is like that also. I, about a month ago volunteered to go onto a job hunting training course provided by a organisation with a number-letter-number configuration in the title.
I'm now wondering whether this is a mistake. I have learnt, via the magic of the internet that people usually get forced onto these courses, and in Sheffield, it is regarded as something of a punishment apparently.
My own course, is highly reminiscent of the things i hated at school. Although i left school donkey's years ago, i still remember and shudder at some of the poor attitude of the teachers, who , apart from a couple of cases, seemed to either be incompetent or megalomaniacal, or tyrants, or all three cases.
Some of the staff at the training course are reminiscent of my teachers, last week i was told that basically i have a negative attitude (no, i have a realistic attitude, which is different), a defensive attitude, and was somehow responsible for the 1973 Miners strike, despite it being six years before i was born...
I said that i fancied working in admin but was at a loss, despite IT qualifications, because i have no experience, and at nearly 30, perhaps a bit too old for a apprenticeship.
Apparently, i was the only one holding me back. Not the poor GCSE's that i have, not the fact i lived for years in a area where there were not many Office roles available, and you had to take what you could get, so i ended up in a factory.
No, it's me and my negative attitude. And apparently i have "issues" too.
To be honest, i get a bit sick of this "Your life is in your hands" crap. Ok, your life is in your hands but there are often outside factors controlling it, like lack of money, putting a roof over your head etc, so i try and make the most of what i've got, unfortunately i don't get very far but that's another story.
I wanted to use my time the other day trawling the local agencies, rather than the Northampton agencies i went to a fortnight (see previous post), and when informing a course leader about this, i got looked at as if i was something he'd stepped in:
"You did this a week ago, didn't you?", i informed him it was a fortnight ago in Northampton.
I was allowed to go in the end. Sometimes i just wonder if it's me or other people who are stupid, hold on, perhaps i'd best not ask...
I sometimes wonder if "Civvy Street" life is like that also. I, about a month ago volunteered to go onto a job hunting training course provided by a organisation with a number-letter-number configuration in the title.
I'm now wondering whether this is a mistake. I have learnt, via the magic of the internet that people usually get forced onto these courses, and in Sheffield, it is regarded as something of a punishment apparently.
My own course, is highly reminiscent of the things i hated at school. Although i left school donkey's years ago, i still remember and shudder at some of the poor attitude of the teachers, who , apart from a couple of cases, seemed to either be incompetent or megalomaniacal, or tyrants, or all three cases.
Some of the staff at the training course are reminiscent of my teachers, last week i was told that basically i have a negative attitude (no, i have a realistic attitude, which is different), a defensive attitude, and was somehow responsible for the 1973 Miners strike, despite it being six years before i was born...
I said that i fancied working in admin but was at a loss, despite IT qualifications, because i have no experience, and at nearly 30, perhaps a bit too old for a apprenticeship.
Apparently, i was the only one holding me back. Not the poor GCSE's that i have, not the fact i lived for years in a area where there were not many Office roles available, and you had to take what you could get, so i ended up in a factory.
No, it's me and my negative attitude. And apparently i have "issues" too.
To be honest, i get a bit sick of this "Your life is in your hands" crap. Ok, your life is in your hands but there are often outside factors controlling it, like lack of money, putting a roof over your head etc, so i try and make the most of what i've got, unfortunately i don't get very far but that's another story.
I wanted to use my time the other day trawling the local agencies, rather than the Northampton agencies i went to a fortnight (see previous post), and when informing a course leader about this, i got looked at as if i was something he'd stepped in:
"You did this a week ago, didn't you?", i informed him it was a fortnight ago in Northampton.
I was allowed to go in the end. Sometimes i just wonder if it's me or other people who are stupid, hold on, perhaps i'd best not ask...
Monday, 1 June 2009
The quest begins again...
Breaking news, as CNN might say, or Sky news, or the BBC for that matter...
"Shock news as Lewis Heyward turns his back on badly paid agency job with long hours, spokesman for Mr. Heyward said: In the light of tough economic conditions, he has decided to save what is left of his sanity, despite the money offered..."
Well, something like that. If you read my last post, you would have read that i had been offered a job working for a employment agency, working in a vegtable factory, for 12 hours a day, four days on-two days off for the princely sum of £5.75 an hour.
I am desperate, but i have had a huge, long think over the last few days. I didn't really want to do the job, i've done this sort of thing before, and it was bad enough when i was getting nearly £7 an hour and working a 8 hour day, so god knows what it would be like doing it for twelve on minimum wage.
Plus, i don't want to walk out of another shit job again, i've done it before and it's personally humiliating and embarrasing, because it's admission of defeat in a way, but i suffer with depression and despite medication, a bad situation becomes a very bad situation for me, so crap jobs are like sheer hell for me and i get what could be politely described as sheer stage fright but in reality is the situation of my nerves being frayed with stress, sleepless nights and believe it or not, the squits, and it's not like it's bad at first because of starting a new job then it gets better, it's just bad full stop.
Crap jobs did this to me, believe it or not, especially factory work, which can be hell if your face dosen't fit and mine was a triangle in a square hole on a couple of jobs, which ended in tears, which i won't go into too much, other to say that i've been bullied at work twice before and it's not pleasant, nor something with easy answers to. Especially worse still when management are too gutless to do anything about it.
So, after a long, long think this sunny weekend, i had to make a very tough decision, even more so as i am desperately skint thanks to my JSA being put on hold (see below) but i decided, in the interests of saving my sanity, to cancel my application for the job.
Things are going to be desperately shit now, but i still have my sanity despite the combined efforts of my local jobcentre to deprive me of money, and the uneasy unfamiliarity of the new letternumberletter jobseeking course i started last week.
NB: FOOTNOTE
Please agencies, stop advertising jobs that are filled or not available, i went to Northampton on Friday to look what was about, not a lot despite the ads in the windows...
On the subject of agenices, here's something interesting from the moneysavingexpert.com forums:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1717367
Viva los Job Applications!
"Shock news as Lewis Heyward turns his back on badly paid agency job with long hours, spokesman for Mr. Heyward said: In the light of tough economic conditions, he has decided to save what is left of his sanity, despite the money offered..."
Well, something like that. If you read my last post, you would have read that i had been offered a job working for a employment agency, working in a vegtable factory, for 12 hours a day, four days on-two days off for the princely sum of £5.75 an hour.
I am desperate, but i have had a huge, long think over the last few days. I didn't really want to do the job, i've done this sort of thing before, and it was bad enough when i was getting nearly £7 an hour and working a 8 hour day, so god knows what it would be like doing it for twelve on minimum wage.
Plus, i don't want to walk out of another shit job again, i've done it before and it's personally humiliating and embarrasing, because it's admission of defeat in a way, but i suffer with depression and despite medication, a bad situation becomes a very bad situation for me, so crap jobs are like sheer hell for me and i get what could be politely described as sheer stage fright but in reality is the situation of my nerves being frayed with stress, sleepless nights and believe it or not, the squits, and it's not like it's bad at first because of starting a new job then it gets better, it's just bad full stop.
Crap jobs did this to me, believe it or not, especially factory work, which can be hell if your face dosen't fit and mine was a triangle in a square hole on a couple of jobs, which ended in tears, which i won't go into too much, other to say that i've been bullied at work twice before and it's not pleasant, nor something with easy answers to. Especially worse still when management are too gutless to do anything about it.
So, after a long, long think this sunny weekend, i had to make a very tough decision, even more so as i am desperately skint thanks to my JSA being put on hold (see below) but i decided, in the interests of saving my sanity, to cancel my application for the job.
Things are going to be desperately shit now, but i still have my sanity despite the combined efforts of my local jobcentre to deprive me of money, and the uneasy unfamiliarity of the new letternumberletter jobseeking course i started last week.
NB: FOOTNOTE
Please agencies, stop advertising jobs that are filled or not available, i went to Northampton on Friday to look what was about, not a lot despite the ads in the windows...
On the subject of agenices, here's something interesting from the moneysavingexpert.com forums:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1717367
Viva los Job Applications!
Thursday, 21 May 2009
You just haven't earned it yet, Baby...
As said in the post below, i've been offered a job, well sort of. I've put my name down for a job with a agency working in: ta dah...a food factory, the one place of work i wouldn't ever want to go back to ever given the choice.
Problem is, i haven't. I am skint and i'm being terminally being f**ked around by the social security system at the moment so i will be penniless very very soon, if they don't pull their finger out of their you-know-what.
Also, i miss work. I don't miss the Bullying or the conditions that would make George Orwell's "The road to Wigan Pier" look like a brochure for a trendy Urbansplash flat (yours for a deposit of 30%, move in today...).
But i do miss the cameraderie, the laughs, the feeling of being useful and earning a crust.
One thing i found interesting at the agency, was although the agency lady was lovely, unusual for agency staff, she did frown a bit at the one year gap in my employment history.
This i could maybe understand if i was going to work in IT, finace, or management consulting, but as a hired hand in a grotty factory, i don't really, but still i (perhaps i'm either too naieve or too much of a old school socialist) don't really understand the whole employment/recruitment thing. When i left school in 1996, it was more or less, at least in the factories, if you could do the job, you were in. This caused a lot of problems admittedly (some of the stories i could tell about co workers, but can't...) And now we seem to be in a position of: "If you don't have a perfect CV and work history, no gaps mind..." then you don't work, or are viewed as some sort of half-creature which has part worked, part been on the dole, and in these box-ticking days then that does not compute. You're either a worker or claimer and that's a narrow attitude to have, not just in recruitment.
Still, they've got the power now. I haven't. I guess i'm just a worker ant waiting to be exploited. I still can't wait for the day that i actually do get a full time job because somebody actually wants me...
Problem is, i haven't. I am skint and i'm being terminally being f**ked around by the social security system at the moment so i will be penniless very very soon, if they don't pull their finger out of their you-know-what.
Also, i miss work. I don't miss the Bullying or the conditions that would make George Orwell's "The road to Wigan Pier" look like a brochure for a trendy Urbansplash flat (yours for a deposit of 30%, move in today...).
But i do miss the cameraderie, the laughs, the feeling of being useful and earning a crust.
One thing i found interesting at the agency, was although the agency lady was lovely, unusual for agency staff, she did frown a bit at the one year gap in my employment history.
This i could maybe understand if i was going to work in IT, finace, or management consulting, but as a hired hand in a grotty factory, i don't really, but still i (perhaps i'm either too naieve or too much of a old school socialist) don't really understand the whole employment/recruitment thing. When i left school in 1996, it was more or less, at least in the factories, if you could do the job, you were in. This caused a lot of problems admittedly (some of the stories i could tell about co workers, but can't...) And now we seem to be in a position of: "If you don't have a perfect CV and work history, no gaps mind..." then you don't work, or are viewed as some sort of half-creature which has part worked, part been on the dole, and in these box-ticking days then that does not compute. You're either a worker or claimer and that's a narrow attitude to have, not just in recruitment.
Still, they've got the power now. I haven't. I guess i'm just a worker ant waiting to be exploited. I still can't wait for the day that i actually do get a full time job because somebody actually wants me...
Full Circle
Next month, on the 17th, i will have been out of work for exactly one year, and what a year it was too! I threw in the towel in a job where the more i learnt the more it pushed out the old stuff (to quote Homer Simpson...), and the chance to work with people you really wouldn't want to be anywhere near given half the chance. Cashed in the equity off my house and indulged on a mega bucks spending spree, moved to three different houses, in two different areas, but just couldn't get settled at all, brought and sold cars, and kept the local takeaways in business, but still, i have to say, the money didn't make me happy, and trust me, it was a stack of cash, but don't worry about blackmailing or mugging me: It's all gone. I have around three quid in my pocket at the moment and i was happy with that as i usually only have a pound plus coppers for parking, not that i pay for it much anymore, running the gauntlet i know, but it's parking or dinner. Dinner wins every time...
It's now May. I've moved for the fourth time in a year into a bedsit that would make a 60's town planner's heart cry for joy, but it's home for now. I hate it, but it's home, although i plan to spend as little time here as possible.
The new area i've moved to is rather well to do, and don't have the usual Jobcentre clientele, the last two times i've been, i was sat next to a (former) Journalist, and the other day someone who sounded like they had been a big noise in banking once, this also means for some reason that they don't have the usual "No job mate?, yeah, i know it's tough, just sign here and we'll see you agin in a fortnight, ta ta!" attitude, which although over-simplifying it, means that at least they know there is no jobs about at the moment.
No, these kindly folks are of the "Why are you on the dole?" school, made popular in the 80's TV Drama "Boys from the Blackstuff", they really don't take any crap. They've been condescending, vague, and forgot i was there for 20 minuites for one apointment, a phone call from them is like a bomb hoax, their phone manner is that bad.
I missed signing on the other day, my car broke down, and i was stranded 30 miles away at my fiance's house, i phoned the Jobcentre up, told them i couldn't make it and was politely informed that if i did not turn up it would involve filling out a form, to have a decision made on whether or not i should have my dole paid to me as "it's not a genuine reason" for missing signing on.
I informed them that expecting me to walk 30 miles was out of the question, but yesterday, i had to fill out all the "why weren't you here?" paperwork, and i'm now awaiting a decision to see if someone is petty enough to turn my dole down.
Dole this week is the last of my Contribution (NI Based) JSA, and although i have filled the paparwork out to get income based JSA, and a small loan to buy second hand furniture, i was informed yesterday that it still hadn't been sorted, i only filled the forms out last week, but when you live hand to mouth, if you wait for money, a day's gap is like a year.
Still, it's not all shit. Although i've had to leave my fiance 30 miles away to live with her parents, which broke my heart when i drove away from her, she was crying and i (perhaps rightly) felt like such a c**t. This really is all my fault. Shit.
It's a sobering thought. X-Amount of thousand pounds to nothing in a year, i really am a c**t.
The clincher here though is that i (sort of) have been offered work to start in June. Shit work, long hours, pocket money pay, but work. I'm hoping now to save up to put down a deposit on a small house nearer my fiance, i hope for my sake that it all works out, i couldn't stand this bedsit more than six months and that's pushing it. It's like one of those flats they give to the millionaire to see how the other half lives in C4's "The Secret Millionaire"...
I'm not looking forward to the job, in fact, i'm trying desperately to find out what else is about work wise so i don't have to take it.
Another plus point is that now i have been put on a free course to help my jobseeking skills, with free stamps and internet. Kerching, as they say...
It's now May. I've moved for the fourth time in a year into a bedsit that would make a 60's town planner's heart cry for joy, but it's home for now. I hate it, but it's home, although i plan to spend as little time here as possible.
The new area i've moved to is rather well to do, and don't have the usual Jobcentre clientele, the last two times i've been, i was sat next to a (former) Journalist, and the other day someone who sounded like they had been a big noise in banking once, this also means for some reason that they don't have the usual "No job mate?, yeah, i know it's tough, just sign here and we'll see you agin in a fortnight, ta ta!" attitude, which although over-simplifying it, means that at least they know there is no jobs about at the moment.
No, these kindly folks are of the "Why are you on the dole?" school, made popular in the 80's TV Drama "Boys from the Blackstuff", they really don't take any crap. They've been condescending, vague, and forgot i was there for 20 minuites for one apointment, a phone call from them is like a bomb hoax, their phone manner is that bad.
I missed signing on the other day, my car broke down, and i was stranded 30 miles away at my fiance's house, i phoned the Jobcentre up, told them i couldn't make it and was politely informed that if i did not turn up it would involve filling out a form, to have a decision made on whether or not i should have my dole paid to me as "it's not a genuine reason" for missing signing on.
I informed them that expecting me to walk 30 miles was out of the question, but yesterday, i had to fill out all the "why weren't you here?" paperwork, and i'm now awaiting a decision to see if someone is petty enough to turn my dole down.
Dole this week is the last of my Contribution (NI Based) JSA, and although i have filled the paparwork out to get income based JSA, and a small loan to buy second hand furniture, i was informed yesterday that it still hadn't been sorted, i only filled the forms out last week, but when you live hand to mouth, if you wait for money, a day's gap is like a year.
Still, it's not all shit. Although i've had to leave my fiance 30 miles away to live with her parents, which broke my heart when i drove away from her, she was crying and i (perhaps rightly) felt like such a c**t. This really is all my fault. Shit.
It's a sobering thought. X-Amount of thousand pounds to nothing in a year, i really am a c**t.
The clincher here though is that i (sort of) have been offered work to start in June. Shit work, long hours, pocket money pay, but work. I'm hoping now to save up to put down a deposit on a small house nearer my fiance, i hope for my sake that it all works out, i couldn't stand this bedsit more than six months and that's pushing it. It's like one of those flats they give to the millionaire to see how the other half lives in C4's "The Secret Millionaire"...
I'm not looking forward to the job, in fact, i'm trying desperately to find out what else is about work wise so i don't have to take it.
Another plus point is that now i have been put on a free course to help my jobseeking skills, with free stamps and internet. Kerching, as they say...
Friday, 24 April 2009
Guess who's back in town again...
I'm back!
To be honest, i've not really applied for any jobs recently, because there isn't any. Now, to every true blood Daily Mail reader this sounds like i'm a very nasty dole scrounger, but i want to tell you i'm not. I'm a human being too and this is my story of why and how i'm still on the dole:
I'm in my late 20's, i left school to go to college because i was promised it was the best thing since sliced bread and it wasn't, i should have done a apprencticeship because i'm not academically minded, but i'm not stupid either. I then got on the manual low wage jobs conveyor belt because when i left college i had no money and no real skills due to poor schooling and toilet paper BTEC qualifications and had to support myself somehow. This was in the beginning of the economic boom times in the mid 90's and i was able, at one point to pull in a £14k a year job, good money for a unskilled blue collar worker at the time. Now it's all virtually gone. I sold my house to move to a area where i thought would be better prospects, and i lost my job during whilst looking for another house to buy, so i had to rent and find a job where i can at least have a reasonable standard of living either financially or emotionally. This hasn't happened and it was nearly a year ago since i had a job. I'm soon having to move into a bedsit, paid for by housing benefit. I am on the bottom of the pile now, after once owning my own place and a three year old car, i now rent and drive a banger, which i can't always afford to use. A chunk of this is my own fault, and i readily admit that. But don't look down on me. I will climb back to the top of the pile, and i will get to the top again, be it in one, two or three years.
Don't look down on me because i'm on the dole. Don't post your bile on websites saying that people are like me are dole scum and ought to do part-time bar work or whatever. What sort of job is that?, how could anyone live on part-time wages?. If you're on the dole, then you survive, that is all. I am lucky to have what little i have now and i count my blessings for it.
I don't apply for shit jobs because there is no point in applying for very short term work or part time work under 30 hours a week, because i wouldn't be surviving, i'd be drowning in poverty, and once the temp work is over then it's back to the dole queue, and claiming benefits again, and to be frank, i'd rather get one good job, with proper full time hours, even if it's minimum wage, rather than the dribs and drabs some people want us to do because "it's a job" or you think i'm driving your NI contributions up, well i paid into that system too and i'm using what is due to me in a time of crisis.
It must be great to work in Finance in Kent and look down your nose from the comfort of your new build three bed semi, but not everyone's that lucky. We can't all do very well for ourselves thank you, and it's not about survival of the fittest. If you believe that then you are really binkered. It's about being human, luck, chance, where you live and skill and it's a lottery with few real winners.
Rant Over...
To be honest, i've not really applied for any jobs recently, because there isn't any. Now, to every true blood Daily Mail reader this sounds like i'm a very nasty dole scrounger, but i want to tell you i'm not. I'm a human being too and this is my story of why and how i'm still on the dole:
I'm in my late 20's, i left school to go to college because i was promised it was the best thing since sliced bread and it wasn't, i should have done a apprencticeship because i'm not academically minded, but i'm not stupid either. I then got on the manual low wage jobs conveyor belt because when i left college i had no money and no real skills due to poor schooling and toilet paper BTEC qualifications and had to support myself somehow. This was in the beginning of the economic boom times in the mid 90's and i was able, at one point to pull in a £14k a year job, good money for a unskilled blue collar worker at the time. Now it's all virtually gone. I sold my house to move to a area where i thought would be better prospects, and i lost my job during whilst looking for another house to buy, so i had to rent and find a job where i can at least have a reasonable standard of living either financially or emotionally. This hasn't happened and it was nearly a year ago since i had a job. I'm soon having to move into a bedsit, paid for by housing benefit. I am on the bottom of the pile now, after once owning my own place and a three year old car, i now rent and drive a banger, which i can't always afford to use. A chunk of this is my own fault, and i readily admit that. But don't look down on me. I will climb back to the top of the pile, and i will get to the top again, be it in one, two or three years.
Don't look down on me because i'm on the dole. Don't post your bile on websites saying that people are like me are dole scum and ought to do part-time bar work or whatever. What sort of job is that?, how could anyone live on part-time wages?. If you're on the dole, then you survive, that is all. I am lucky to have what little i have now and i count my blessings for it.
I don't apply for shit jobs because there is no point in applying for very short term work or part time work under 30 hours a week, because i wouldn't be surviving, i'd be drowning in poverty, and once the temp work is over then it's back to the dole queue, and claiming benefits again, and to be frank, i'd rather get one good job, with proper full time hours, even if it's minimum wage, rather than the dribs and drabs some people want us to do because "it's a job" or you think i'm driving your NI contributions up, well i paid into that system too and i'm using what is due to me in a time of crisis.
It must be great to work in Finance in Kent and look down your nose from the comfort of your new build three bed semi, but not everyone's that lucky. We can't all do very well for ourselves thank you, and it's not about survival of the fittest. If you believe that then you are really binkered. It's about being human, luck, chance, where you live and skill and it's a lottery with few real winners.
Rant Over...
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Today i'm bitching about...The Used Car Trade
Sorry to divest from my usual job related rants people, but bear with me on this one! i'm going to ask a small, maybe personal question, and you don't have to contact me with an answer, but how much did your car cost, that is if you drive?,
£10k? £5k? £1500?
Now, let's face it, even if you haven't been in the position to buy a car for less than £300, just be glad you don't, it's a joyless, depressing episode. I sold my old Volvo recently as it wasn't going to make it through another MOT so i let someone else buy it to run it into it's grave because i doubted i would be able to afford to put it through another MOT.
I got a reasonable £300 for it, and started trawling the small ads to find alternative transport, one dealer had some stuff that looked cheap and promising so off i tootled to have a look.
Most of his stuff was dross, real heaps, including a mystery mondeo: "I don't know nothing about it, just came in on a trailer, no log book though."
So this was a man who really knew his stock inside out, always handy that. I said a straight no to what he had but he notified me that at his house, a few yards away, he had a Citroen ZX Diesel with a broken clutch cable. I used to work in the motor trade, and do a bit of car tinkering, where relevant so i thought it might be worth a look if it was cheap enough.
And shown it i was: it was grubby, the rear wheels didn't sit right and the rear window mechanism had broken, and so had the clutch cable, as said to give it it's due, it started "on the button" as they say and sounded very sweet. I thought it would be worth, to myself, with the extra work of putting a new clutch cable in, about £100-£150. So i asked the fine purveyeor of cost-effective automobilia how much he wanted for this shed of dreams.
£200 was the breathtaking reply. Ok, it had tax and mot but putting in a clutch cable without ramps etc would be hard work, so it was a "i'll have to think about it then" from me. You just can't really say "no, it's a bag of shit, mate and i don't want to be lumbered with it like you obviously are..."
Apparently, according to Arthur Daley here, it was worth £350 "all day" when fixed. That i doubted, Citroen ZX's are now obsolete and have a wildly differing value system where they can be worth £50-£500.
So, with my refusal in his ears, the vendor turned off the engine, shut the car door, and said sharply: "I've got things to do", walked in his house and shut the door. What a arrogant git. I didn't mean to annoy him, it's embarassing enough having to look for cheap wheels, but i didn't deserve being snubbed like that.
Trouble is, the used car "game" is full of people like this, more sinner than saint. It's a shame really, ok, at £300 you aren't buying the bells and whistles of a full customer service led dealer experience, but that dosen't mean that every customer has to be treated with, at best, contempt and at worst, the feeling of being treated like dog poo by them.
I once went into a part-worn tyres warehouse, four of the fitters stood there looking at me like something they'd stepped in, with grubby mugs of tea in their hand, i asked about having a couple of tyres slapped on my trusty Volvo, they said nothing but one miserably pointed to a chap in the office. At least i got joy from him.
It's enough to make you puke sometimes.
£10k? £5k? £1500?
Now, let's face it, even if you haven't been in the position to buy a car for less than £300, just be glad you don't, it's a joyless, depressing episode. I sold my old Volvo recently as it wasn't going to make it through another MOT so i let someone else buy it to run it into it's grave because i doubted i would be able to afford to put it through another MOT.
I got a reasonable £300 for it, and started trawling the small ads to find alternative transport, one dealer had some stuff that looked cheap and promising so off i tootled to have a look.
Most of his stuff was dross, real heaps, including a mystery mondeo: "I don't know nothing about it, just came in on a trailer, no log book though."
So this was a man who really knew his stock inside out, always handy that. I said a straight no to what he had but he notified me that at his house, a few yards away, he had a Citroen ZX Diesel with a broken clutch cable. I used to work in the motor trade, and do a bit of car tinkering, where relevant so i thought it might be worth a look if it was cheap enough.
And shown it i was: it was grubby, the rear wheels didn't sit right and the rear window mechanism had broken, and so had the clutch cable, as said to give it it's due, it started "on the button" as they say and sounded very sweet. I thought it would be worth, to myself, with the extra work of putting a new clutch cable in, about £100-£150. So i asked the fine purveyeor of cost-effective automobilia how much he wanted for this shed of dreams.
£200 was the breathtaking reply. Ok, it had tax and mot but putting in a clutch cable without ramps etc would be hard work, so it was a "i'll have to think about it then" from me. You just can't really say "no, it's a bag of shit, mate and i don't want to be lumbered with it like you obviously are..."
Apparently, according to Arthur Daley here, it was worth £350 "all day" when fixed. That i doubted, Citroen ZX's are now obsolete and have a wildly differing value system where they can be worth £50-£500.
So, with my refusal in his ears, the vendor turned off the engine, shut the car door, and said sharply: "I've got things to do", walked in his house and shut the door. What a arrogant git. I didn't mean to annoy him, it's embarassing enough having to look for cheap wheels, but i didn't deserve being snubbed like that.
Trouble is, the used car "game" is full of people like this, more sinner than saint. It's a shame really, ok, at £300 you aren't buying the bells and whistles of a full customer service led dealer experience, but that dosen't mean that every customer has to be treated with, at best, contempt and at worst, the feeling of being treated like dog poo by them.
I once went into a part-worn tyres warehouse, four of the fitters stood there looking at me like something they'd stepped in, with grubby mugs of tea in their hand, i asked about having a couple of tyres slapped on my trusty Volvo, they said nothing but one miserably pointed to a chap in the office. At least i got joy from him.
It's enough to make you puke sometimes.
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